Final Justice (1985) Arista Films/Action RT: 90 minutes Rated R (strong violence, nudity including full frontal, sexual content including rape, language) Director: Greydon Clark Screenplay: Greydon Clark Music: David Bell Cinematography: Nicholas Josef von Sternberg Release date: May 1985 (US) Cast: Joe Don Baker, Rossano Brazzi, Venantino Venantini, Helena Abella, Bill McKinney, Patrizia Pellegrino, Lino Grech, Tony Ellul, Joe Theuma, Bettina Amato-Gauci, Joe Quattromani, Josie Coppini, John Suda, Elvisio Cannori, Josephine Mahoney, Jan Karl Farrugia, Marie Klaire Farrugia, Greydon Clark. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
I’m not going to review the Greydon Clark actioner Final Justice like a critic. It wouldn’t do the movie justice. There is great pleasure to be had from watching a really trashy B-movie that elitist film snobs would turn their noses up at. That pretty much describes Clark’s entire oeuvre. He’s the quasi-auteur behind quasi-classics like Satan’s Cheerleaders, Without Warning and Joysticks. You can tell by the titles what kind of filmmaker he is. He doesn’t make films for those with discriminating taste. He makes movies for viewers who just want to be entertained for 90 minutes. I love him for that!
My first encounter with Final Justice was in summer 1987. It was showing on cable. A co-worker told me it was pretty good so I sat down to watch it one night. I fell asleep (no reflection on the movie, I was tired), but what little I saw looked promising. I gave it one more try (same result) before moving onto other things in my life. I forgot all about it until recently when I watched another of Clark’s movies Angels Brigade (or Angels Revenge if you prefer). I spotted Final Justice while looking at his IMDb profile and the memories just came flooding back. I saw that it was showing on Tubi and decided to give it another shot. Hey, third time’s a charm, right?
The star of Final Justice is Joe Don Baker, familiar to action fans as Sheriff Buford Pusser in the Walking Tall films. He was pushing 50 at the time and wasn’t exactly in fighting shape. No matter; he’s just as tough as ever as Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III (what a great name!), a Texas lawman out for revenge after the sheriff (played by Clark) is gunned down by Mafia guy Joseph Palermo (Venantini, Cannibal Ferox) during an attempted car theft from the police station parking lot. During the subsequent foot pursuit, Geronimo shoots and kills Palermo’s brother (Cannori) as they attempt to cross the Mexican border. Palermo vows revenge right before he’s taken into custody.
Instead of facing Lone Star justice, Palermo is extradited to Italy to answer for his crimes there. Geronimo, under the command of State Department official Wilson (McKinney, Deliverance), is assigned the task of escorting the prisoner to Sicily. A technical problem, caused by a couple of Mafia goons with a remote control, forces the plane to land in Malta where Palermo manages to escape with the help of the same goons. Geronimo survives the attack which culminates with the taxi they were riding in being blown to smithereens. Needless to say, he’s quite perturbed.
At the police station, Geronimo offers his assistance in re-apprehending Palermo, but the chief (Grech) assures him they’re quite capable of doing it themselves. Furthermore, Wilson orders him to be on the next plane to the States. That paperwork isn’t going to fill itself out. Well, our hero isn’t going to let trivialities like jurisdiction and official orders stop him from getting his man. He’s mad as hell and wants revenge.
Vengeance is also on the mind of Palermo who’s hiding out at the villa of mob boss Don Lamanna (Brazzi, The Final Conflict) where he’s expected to stay until he can be safely spirited off the island. That gives him about a week to chill and take advantage of the amenities available to him- e.g. the bevy of half-naked hotties hanging out by the pool. There’s nothing chill about this guy. He wants to get back out there and get the cowboy cop who killed his brother. Like his adversary, nobody better get in his way….. or else.
I’m well aware that many regard Final Justice as terrible. Why else would it receive both the MST3K and RiffTrax treatments? I agree wholeheartedly that it’s a bad movie, BUT it’s one of those “so bad, it’s great!” deals. I got more laughs out of it than 95% of the so-called comedies released in the last ten years. That the comedy is completely unintentional makes it all the funnier.
Let’s start with Joe Don’s performance; specifically, his terrible Clint Eastwood impression. I’m thinking about one scene in particular. It’s like something out of a Sergio Leone spaghetti western knock-off. Geronimo has an actual showdown with three Mafia guys. They stand there facing each other in a piazza as the ersatz Ennio Morricone score kicks in. We get close-up shots of eyes, lips, twitching hands and sweat pouring down faces as everyone waits for somebody to reach for his gun first. The lawman, in his best intimidating voice, says “You think you can take me? Go ahead on. It’s your move.” LOL! What a line! It’s repeated several times throughout the movie.
What you see in Final Justice can’t be called acting. It’s not accurate. Depending on which cast member you’re talking about, it’s either overacting or underacting. The latter definitely applies to Helena Abella (real name Helena Dalli) who plays Maria, the policewoman assigned to keep an eye on Geronimo in the guise of showing him around the island. She doesn’t do a very good job keeping him out of trouble seeing as how he keeps ending up in the same jail cell waiting to be reprimanded by the increasingly impatient police chief. This would be the only major role for the former model and Miss Malta 1979 who left acting for the world of politics after Final Justice. Like so many models before and since, she’s all beauty and no talent. She walks around with the same blank expression through the whole movie, barely even reacting to Geronimo continuously violating every procedure in the book. Only once does she speak up, when she says “Stop this fighting!” in the middle of a bar brawl. I’m shocked the whole joint didn’t break down in laughter at that.
Venantini tears away at the scenery as the villain of the piece. Whether it’s making empty promises to his boss to kill Geronimo without any help from “boys from Rome” or abusing his “girlfriend” (Italian actress Pellegrino), he’s a vicious SOB. McKinney hams it up pretty good too. The late Brazzi went from making A-list films opposite big name stars like Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner and John Wayne to appearing in B-movies like Fear City and Final Justice. It happens to a lot of stars when they age out of leading roles. Interestingly enough, he plays a Mafia boss in both films. While he doesn’t quite half-ass it here, it’s obvious he’s only in it for the paycheck. I wouldn’t expect anything less from a respected actor in B-movie schlock.
After the total PG-ness of Angels Brigade, it’s great to see Final Justice lean so hard into its R rating. The shootings are nice and bloody. There’s plenty of nudity including one scene that would definitely please Booger from Revenge of the Nerds (“We got bush! We got bush!”). A few scenes take place in a bar where the “girlfriend” and another hottie (Gauci) entertain the clientele as only scantily-clad women on stages in seedy bars can. They do a number involving swords and G-strings to the aptly named “You Better Run”. Needless to say, this particular establishment is NOT a tourist attraction.
Although made on the cheap, Final Justice does boast some nice Maltese scenery; that is, when the hero and his ragazza Friday aren’t cruising the side streets and back alleys of the Mediterranean country looking for trouble and always finding it. There are a few decent action scenes, but unintended humor once again comes into play when Geronimo chases Palermo into a church after a failed ambush attempt. The mobster thinks he’s smart disguising himself as a priest in order to avoid capture. What he doesn’t count on is this persistent woman who wants him to hear her confession. I hate it when that happens, don’t you?
Final Justice is pure junk. I LOVE THAT! In the 70s, it would have played the drive-in circuit. In the 80s, it rented like crazy from video stores. Now it can found on Tubi alongside other forgotten B-movie treasures. I like a lot of what’s in it. Joe Don Baker is a good character actor. Clark is a cool director. There’s action, violence and lots of boobs. There’s even an 11th hour plot twist that you’ll probably seeing coming if you accidentally left your brain in the ON position. I don’t recommend it for Final Justice. To enjoy this one, you’ll need to leave it on OFF. That’s what I did and I had a total blast.
